Life After You
by starwarsfreak95
Summary: Songfic of Life After You by Daughtry. Rated T because I am paranoid.


**Author's Note: This is my first story, please comment on it! Also the present is shown in normal print, song lyrics in itallics, and memories in bold.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the song Life After You by Daughtry.**

Life After You

New York. So many memories were made here. I'm trying to avoid them as much as I can, but they are screaming at me. The differences between this trip and the last are huge as well. Enough of that though.

New York in the rain is a dreary, ugly place. I turned up the collar of my coat and stepped into the crowded café.

"May I take your order?" a young waitress asked.

"One large mocha cappuccino and a Big Breakfast Plate for here please."

From the expression on her face, I must have surprised the waitress of about my age, 20, when I took off the (black) fedora that shadowed my face. I then proceeded to flip my longish hair out of my face with a professional-looking shake of my head.

I paid her and took my tray to an unoccupied corner near one of the speakers to the stereo system. Greatly missing Iggy's version of the same, I began eating.

Suddenly, I froze. I recognized this song! It had been a newer one when I left the flock, and I had enjoyed it.

_I'm 10 miles from town,_

_and I just broke down,_

_spittin' out smoke from the side of the road_

_I'm out here alone_

Lonely indeed. That was how I always felt nowadays.

_Just tryin' to get home_

_To tell you I was wrong but you already know_

_Believe me I won't stop at nothin'_

_To see you so I started runnin'_

As the chorus began, memories began flooding to the surface of my mind. Memories that I had been suppressing since I had arrived in this stupid city.

_All that I'm after,_

_Is a life full of laughter_

_As long as I'm laughing with you,_

**We were trapped in Miami, by the Uber-Director. They had brought us food to eat. Not knowing what recombinant experiments eat, they brought everything up to and including birdseed. When the flock saw it, they burst out laughing. Even Max let down her tough-girl leader walls down and laughed with them. **And so had I.

_And I'm thinkin' that _

_All that still matters_

_Is love and laughter_

_After the life we've been through_

'_cause I know there's no life after you_

**That date in Hawaii. The light in her eyes when I turned down Brigid to take her on a date.**

_The last time we talked_

**She was beautiful in her white dress. Total and Akila's wedding was amazing, but it didn't compare to her.** My eyes fillled as I realized that the last words I spoke to her, the last promise she heard in my voice, was a lie. **"I''ll be there when you get back," I'd told her, "Go have fun."**

_The night that I walked_

_Burns like an eye in the back of my mind_

**Printing it out was agonizing. It was like watching the forging of the knife that would be used to kill. I left the letter on her dresser and went out the window. I sat still to turn invisible outside her window. Perversely, I wanted to watch her open it, so I watched and waited.**

_I must have been high_

_To say you and I _

_Weren't meant to be_

_And just wastin' my time_

**I watched her open the letter as Nudge came looking for her. I could tell that she started reading aloud though I couldn't hear her through the glass. Soon, the others came into her room. Then, something happened that made me want to burst back into the room. Max, my beautiful, strong, Max, began to cry. Within a few minutes, the whole flock was sobbing. I knew that this was something that I needed to see: the consequences of what I'd done to other people. I saw with my raptor vision that the words on the letter were blurring from her tears. Unable to take anymore, I flew off to places unknown.**

_Oh why did I ever doubt you?_

In a way, I had been doubting her ability to lead by leaving.

_You know I would die here without you_

Did she really?

_All that I'm after_

_Is a life full of laughter_

_As long as I'm laughing with you_

That's what drove me to make the deal.

_And I'm thinkin' that all that still matters_

_Is love and laughter_

_After the life we've been through_

_I know there's no life after you_

My life these past 5 years had been less than pathetic.

_You and I, right or wrong_

_There's no other one_

_After this time I've spent on_

_I do believe a man with sight could be so blind_

Iggy could have seen better than I had.

_Thinkin' bout the better times_

Like when we were on the run?

_Must've been out of my mind_

Definitely

_So what if I could tell you_

_All that I'm after_

_Is a life full of laughter_

_Without you God knows what I'd do_

Like making that deal with Gunther-Hagen.

_All that I'm after_

_Is a life full of laughter_

_As long as I'm laughing with you_

_And I'm thinkin' that all that still matters_

_Is love and laughter_

_After the life we've been through_

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max, a determined look on her face, fighting Erasers.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max's fear-filled face after she kissed me, after I had almost died on the beach in New York.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max, kissing Sam, I wanted to hurt that loser.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max, tears streaming down her face, trying to take her chip out with a sharp piece of shell.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**The look on her face when I kissed her the first time.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max, fighting to get her Mom back with all that she had. **

_I know there's no life after you_

**The anger, for both of us, when Dylan showed up and made his play for Max.**

_I know there's no life after you_

**Max's tear streaked face, the first thing I saw after she saved my life.**

I finished my food and coffee, then left the café. As I walked out into the rain, I thought I saw a familiar face. I know that lots of people have brownish blond hair, but she looked familiar. When I looked again, she was gone along with the last shreds of my walk down memory lane.

I shrugged my shoulders, tugged my coat in around my body, and disappeared myself in the dreary, wet, mass of people that was New York City, leaving the painful memories behind.


End file.
